Ahmedabad: Hitting out at the Congress for targeting the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee on December 9 said the main Opposition party was like "fish out of water" and are desperate to regain power.

"Our Congress friends are used to being in government. They have been in government for too long. They are like fish out of water now and are desperate to come back to power," he told a rally at Maninagar Assembly constituency from where Chief Minister Narendra Modi is contesting.

"I am surprised when Congress netas and netris says the BJP government has failed on all fronts. When we asked are you talking of the state or Centre, they said both. They have decided to criticise at will," the Prime Minister said.

He said Gujarat has set a target of 10 per cent growth during the next Five Year Plan and to achieve this it was necessary to have a government that kept in mind service of the people and took all sections along.

"In business, trade, Information Technology and education, the country should make progress and answer challenges posed by the world," Vajpayee said.

Vajpayee said India did business worth over Rs 40,000 crore in Information Technology. "Wherever you go in the world, you will find Indians working there and among them you will find people of Gujarat."

. He also spoke about the export of foodgrains saying, "The world is envious of India's economic development. Instead of buying foodgrains we exported more than Rs 6,000 crore worth of foodgrains. Our scientists are prepared to face any challenge."

Pointing out that the BJP ruled at the Centre with the help of other parties, he said, "We hope more parties join us."

Claiming that his party had never "compromised on ideology or adopted a wrong path" during the 40 years it remained in Opposition, he asked the Congress to take a cue from it.

PTI